Wall Street Zen Downgrades ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) to Hold

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on NOW. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of ServiceNow from $1,075.00 to $1,150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $1,275.00 price target on shares of ServiceNow in a report on Thursday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $1,250.00 price objective on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Mizuho set a $1,150.00 target price on ServiceNow in a report on Thursday, October 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have issued a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,149.67.

ServiceNow Trading Up 0.3%

NOW opened at $824.75 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $171.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 99.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.97. ServiceNow has a 52 week low of $678.66 and a 52 week high of $1,198.09. The business’s 50 day moving average is $884.97 and its two-hundred day moving average is $933.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Shares of ServiceNow are going to split on the morning of Friday, December 5th. The 5-1 split was announced on Wednesday, October 29th. The newly issued shares will be distributed to shareholders after the market closes on Thursday, December 4th.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information technology services provider reported $4.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.21 by $0.61. The company had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.35 billion. ServiceNow had a net margin of 13.66% and a return on equity of 19.23%. ServiceNow’s quarterly revenue was up 21.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.72 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that ServiceNow will post 8.93 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at ServiceNow

In other ServiceNow news, Vice Chairman Nicholas Tzitzon sold 522 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $827.08, for a total transaction of $431,735.76. Following the sale, the insider owned 3,000 shares in the company, valued at $2,481,240. This represents a 14.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Paul Edward Chamberlain sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $808.00, for a total value of $242,400.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 9,586 shares in the company, valued at $7,745,488. This trade represents a 3.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 2,647 shares of company stock worth $2,180,835 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of ServiceNow during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,589,235,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in ServiceNow in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,817,535,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in ServiceNow by 131.4% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,480,526 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,178,706,000 after acquiring an additional 840,731 shares in the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC acquired a new position in ServiceNow during the 1st quarter worth $519,806,000. Finally, Amundi grew its stake in shares of ServiceNow by 61.9% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 1,638,927 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,269,777,000 after purchasing an additional 626,623 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.18% of the company’s stock.

About ServiceNow

ServiceNow, Inc provides end to-end intelligent workflow automation platform solutions for digital businesses in the North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company operates the Now platform for end-to-end digital transformation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotic process automation, process mining, performance analytics, and collaboration and development tools.